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Guard Smurf Millender hoping to inject aggression into Georgia's lineup

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson09/24/25JeremyO_Johnson
Smurf Millender
Photo by Jeremy Johnson.

Georgia basketball has its spark plug for the 2025-2026 season. Marcus ‘Smurf’ Millender has made his way to Athens, intent on bringing energy offensively and defensively.

Millender scored 14.9 points per game at UTSA last season. Millender admits he did not play the defense he wanted to last season.

He expects to have an opportunity to be a consistent bother for opponents from one end of the floor to the other. Georgia head coach Mike White expects Georgia to be a more up-tempo team this season.

“I think this group will score easier,” White told reporters last week. “I think we’ll be fun to watch. We’ll play fast. We’ll shoot a lot of threes. A lot of ball handling. It’ll be the best passing team I’ve had in a while. I think we create some turnovers and defend at a high level, but defend differently. We’ll pack it in, and we won’t be quite as long and big with the same positional size we had last year. Can we hold our own in the glass will be something we’re working toward.”

Millender intends to be a major part of that new playing style. It’s a style suited for his game.

“I just wanted to bring my play style, you know, to Georgia and see if we can continue to keep the energy going,” Millender told reporters on Monday. “I bring like to pick up 94 feet. I’m a facilitator of the score when I can, just be the team leader on the court when the coach is not on the court with us…I feel like I grew in my aggression on the offensive side. I kind of took a step back on the defensive side, you know, I didn’t really play to my best ability on the defense up there. I feel like on the offensive side, I took a step back.”

Smurf Millender is looking to fill the role left by former starter

Georgia will be replacing Silas Demary this season. Demary was Georgia’s point guard and second-leading scorer last season.

With Demary’s departure, Georgia loses a lot of leadership and creativity offensively. Millender hopes to pick up some of the slack left by Demary’s departure.

“My leadership skills, I’m not saying I’m the oldest guy on the team, but being one of the oldest guys on the team,” Millender said. “I just have to pick up my leadership skills and get back to that dog mentality, picking up the ball full court, being the best on defense, and just being disruptive on defense at all times.”

Millender is only a part of the reimagined backcourt at Georgia. Jeremiah Wilkinson and Jordan Ross also transferred in this offseason.

Blue Cain returns to Athens for his junior season. Millender has already gotten a peek into what Georgia’s backcourt can be this winter and spring.

“I’m not going to speak too much into it, but I feel like in March we’re gonna have a lot of fun,” Millender said.

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